U-T Editorial: A peculiar choice

If Obama wants farm reform, why Vilsack?

For two decades, the wealthy agricultural interests who have made billions of dollars off federal subsidies for ethanol production have had crucial support from the environmental movement. Green groups liked the idea of using corn-based ethanol as an alternative to heavily polluting fossil fuels.

Now – with evidence piling up that ethanol likely hurts the environment because its production is so energy-and water-intensive – this protective cover is evaporating. Last week, six green organizations – including the influential Environmental Working Group – denounced corn-based ethanol for producing “unintended, yet potentially catastrophic environmental consequences” with “little or no ... protection from global warming.”

The group neglected to mention the unintended consequence that is of far greater concern to the typical household: The surge in the cost of many extremely common and popular processed foods because of the demand-driven increase in corn's price. What is driving that demand? Federal subsidies for ethanol production.

Given this picture, what Congress did in May remains difficult to fathom: It overrode by wide margins President Bush's veto of a bloated five-year farm bill that increased ethanol subsidies and mandated greater use of biofuels.

Now there is another head-scratcher for proponents of a rational farm policy: President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack to be his agriculture secretary.

Iowa has reaped the biggest chunk of the $25 billion-plus lavished on ethanol subsidies since the late 1980s, and Vilsack has been a belligerent supporter of even-greater subsidies. His selection is difficult to square with Obama's recent call to cap subsidies given to wealthy farmers and with his criticism of the excessive power wielded in Washington by “big agribusiness.”

On the other hand, the president-elect's own history is difficult to square with his recent farm-reform talk. Obama ardently backed ethanol subsidies while in the Senate – his home state of Illinois trails only Iowa in corn production – and one of his closest confidants, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, is as responsible as any politician for the explosion in these subsidies.

So while we hope Obama's call for reform is sincere, it's tough to be optimistic. Even as the case against ethanol subsidies grows more overwhelming, they appear more entrenched than ever. U.S. farm policy has never seemed more irrational.